March 24, 2016

(Above: Plain bagel with a schmear of whitefish salad from Meshuggah Bagels.)

At 6:30 am last Friday when owners, Pete and Janna Linde, unlocked the doors of their handsome new retail storefront for Meshuggah Bagels, a line had already started to form, and it did not stop until they closed their doors for the day at 2:00 pm.

By all measures, opening day was a great success for Meshuggah Bagels on 39th Street.

“Seriously, we unlocked our doors and there was a line outside of people waiting to get in,” says Janna Linde who was amazed by the outpouring of people who showed up opening day.

The line moved quickly on Friday. A friendly woman greeted you at the front door and took your order. Penning it in black Sharpie pen on a brown paper sack, she would slide the sack down the counter to the Linde’s who would start filling bags with bagels. The smell of freshly baked bagels and the visual of glass cases heaping with the familiar round yeast roll with a hole in it was enough to make most mouths water in anticipation. The wait, you could tell, would be worth it.

After ordering, the crowd fanned out across the small dining room. Everyone was looking for an empty corner to stand in, or if you were lucky enough, you might be able to snag a chair from someone whose name had just been called. There are no more that 20 seats inside of Meshuggah Bagels, but on opening day, most people were taking their bagels to go.

The large grey home that was converted into the retail space for Meshuggah Bagels below, and apartments above, has the look of a Boston Harbor storefront from the outside, with classic brass fixtures and black shutters. The front door is located on the side of the building, and there is parking in the back of the building, as well as a few spaces in front. Plan to park on the neighborhood streets surrounding the shop and walk for your bagels, especially on the weekends, when they are likely to be busy.

The inside of the bagel shop has been painted a warm gold with antique wood tables and black colonial style wood chairs continuing the theme. Baker’s racks hang on the walls filled with well-worn wooden spoons and spatulas and cutting boards. This carefully curated collection of traditional old world cooking implements, helps one understand the commitment to baking from scratch the couple does at their production facility in Pleasant Valley.

A framed chalkboard lists the small and simple menu for Meshuggah Bagels. The bagels offered on opening day were: plain, salt, poppy seed, sesame, “everything,” garlic or onion. Bagels are sold individually or you can order a half-dozen or a dozen to go.

They also offer a handful of schmears that you can get on a bagel to dress your dough up a bit. Plain, garlic & herb and salmon cream cheese, whitefish salad, smoked nova lox or fresh lox and a schmear, ranging from $3 for a bagel with cream cheese to $7.50 for a bagel with lox and a schmear.

To drink with your bagel, you can order a cup of the Meshuggah Midtown Medium Roast or Meshuggah 3rd Rail Dark Roast from Maps Coffee Roasters in Lenexa. You can also buy a bag of their blend to take home with you for $12.50.

There were plenty of bagels prepared for opening day, but know that favorites like the “everything” bagel tended to sell out faster than the rest. However, everyone waiting for bagels last Friday were fine with switching up their order just to get bagels in their bag. Soon enough, a truck pulled up from their production bakery and within 15 minutes the counter was restocked with freshly baked bagels and they were off to the races.

There was a natural rhythm that soon developed behind the bagel counter at Meshuggah Bagels, as names were called and orders fulfilled. The couple worked hard to make sure that everyone left satisfied on opening day.

“We are definitely not going to run out of bagels today,” says Linde to the anxious crowd waiting for their orders to be filled. “We baked over 3,000 bagels in preparation for opening day, so we are ready.”

And if the opening crowds at Meshuggah Bagels are any indication, Kansas City is ready for them, as well.

Meshuggah Bagels is open Monday through Friday, 6:30am to 2pm and Saturday and Sunday, 8am to 2pm.

March 22, 2016

When Aaron Confessori, chef owner of Westport Café and Bar, realized he was going to be losing co-owner and chef, Richard Wiles, he knew it was critical to find just the right person to take over the kitchen at the six year old restaurant they built together.

He found two instead.

Confessori welcomes the addition of two new French co-owners and chefs to the Parisian-inspired bistro: Kevin Mouhot and Romain Monnoyeur.

The two chefs came to Kansas City years ago to work an internship at another French restaurant, Café de Amis in Parkville. After their internship, they each moved around to bigger cities cooking and working in Europe, New York and Orlando. But they liked Kansas City, there was plenty of work opportunities, friendly people and a low cost of living.

Starting the process to look for a new chef, Confessori got a phone call from a friend and business contact, telling him that he knew of two very talented French chefs who very much wanted come to Kansas City to live and work.

He agreed to meet with Mouhot and Monnoyeur, and felt the two of them were a perfect fit for Westport Café and Bar. They reminded him of he and several of his chef friends when they were just starting out. Friends who started cooking at a young age, who graduated from culinary school at the same time and decided they made a great team and sought opportunities to work together.

“I was young when I first started in this business, and I was given incredible responsibility and opportunity at a very young age, so I want to provide the same for these two,” says Confessori.

It was a perfect pairing, but there was a catch -- both chefs needed visas to stay in the country and work at Westport Café & Bar.

Confessori took on the challenge, working with his lawyer for over a year negotiating special visas for the two that requires that they be “co-owners” in the restaurant to stay. He went to Wiles and offered to buy him out, which then cleared the legal path for the two new chefs to step into their new positions legally.

“It was a long process, I spent 365 days, created an 800-page document, spoke to the US Embassy and basically paid what it took to keep these two chefs in Kansas City for the next 5 years,” says Confessori.

When asked what will happen to two chefs after the 5 years is over, Confessori says, “Their visas are renewable, but I am almost positive that these two good looking guys will both be married to nice Kansas City gals by then.”

Mouhot will serve as co-owner and general manager at Westport Café & Bar, and will oversee front-of-house responsibilities. With a degree in marketing and hotel management from the BTS Hôtellerie Restauration, Mouhot’s background includes high-end hotels and restaurants across Europe and the United States with previous hospitality positions at The Dorchester Hotel in London and Epcot Center's Monsieur Paul in Orlando, Florida.

Monnoyeur will work as a co-owner and executive chef for Westport Café & Bar, bringing his nine years of French-style cuisine and restaurant industry experience to lead the kitchen operations. Additionally, Monnoyeur intends to slowly incorporate his culinary point of view, with plans for new or enhanced menu items later this spring.

May 10, 2015

Taylor Petrehn is a talented baker, and his brother Reagan is an expert barista. They’d been pursuing separate careers in hospitality halfway around the world from each other, before an old laundromat in Lawrence, Kansas, brought them back together.

It’s on that site that they expect to open their bakery and coffee shop, 1900 Barker Bakery & Café, in May. Construction delays related to retrofitting the laundromat have cost them more than a year, but they’re excited about the possibilities: light wood, white walls, and a comfortable place to start your day with a pastry and coffee -- or just stop by to pick up a hot loaf of bread on your way home from work.

“The space will be an intimate and comfortable spot to land,” Reagan Petrehn promises. “We estimate about 14 seats inside, plus our front porch, which will also have seating.”

The shop takes its name from Lawrence’s Barker neighborhood. “We want the neighborhood to tell us what purpose they want us to serve in their lives,” he adds. “We will be defined by the neighborhood, not the other way around.”

On the bakery side of things, Taylor Petrehn is planning his schedule so that at least five different types of bread will be fresh out of the oven around dinner time, allowing customers to swing by for hot bread on the way home from work. “This way people can experience bread when it is at its best,” he says.

He also plans to make a handful of pastries to go with morning coffee and perhaps open-faced sandwiches for lunchtime treat.

The Petrehns are known in local food circles as “The Fabulous Barker Boys,” and the name fits. Both men are handsome, articulate and humble. It’s impossible not to like them.

Raised on a family farm in Paola, Kansas, the brothers were home-schooled, each eventually leaving the farm at 16 to attend Johnson County Community College. At 19, Taylor graduated with honors from the JCCC culinary program, the youngest person to ever complete the program. Reagan pursued a business degree, with a minor in coffee, and worked as a barista for Parisi’s Coffee to put himself through school.

While Taylor built a 10,000 pound pizza oven, “The Ashery,” in the backyard of the family farm and began hosting pizza parties for friends and family, Reagan found his calling as a barista, realizing he loved teaching others about coffee.

After JCCC, Taylor went to work for the pizza station at Chef Colby and Megan Garrelts’ TrezoVino in the Park Place Shopping Center. Meanwhile, Reagan was approached by a group of U.S. entrepreneurs who had decided to open a chain of retail coffee shops in China. He sold his possessions and took off for China.

Several years passed. Then Taylor, who’d moved to the Barker neighborhood in Lawrence, noticed the little laundromat on the corner.

“I had worked in several fine dining restaurants by this point and I knew I wanted to have a place of my own to bake fresh bread,” he says. “The laundromat seemed like best place in Lawrence to open a bakery."

After a phone call to the owner of the property, Taylor learned the laundromat had closed years ago after a bad water main break. Around Christmas 2013 his offer for the building was accepted.

What followed was a slow remodeling process. It took several months just to get the proper permitting, as the space had been zoned for residential use. But he’s been able to do it with his brother by his side.

In early 2014, while the two were Skyping, Taylor asked him to come home and help him with the project.

“I had to really think about whether I was ready to come home, and if this was really what I wanted my future to be,” Reagan says, “but the importance of having a place that Taylor and I would share was too great, and I packed up and moved back to Lawrence to help with the remodeling.”

With their contractor, the Barker Boys have slowly been working from the bottom of the space up. They replaced the floor joists and reinforced an addition. As of last week they had to block off the street to tear down one whole wall to move in Taylor’s new toy, a 4,500-pound Italian stone-hearth deck oven.

Eventually, the brothers hope to grow the business so they can mill their own flour and roast their own coffee beans, but right now they are just focused on getting 1900 Barker Bakery & Café open and ready for business.

“There were a lot of late nights getting this place open, but it was all worth it,” Borger said. He even rented a small studio apartment above the shop to use as a crash pad while he worked to get the location open.

The new Il Lazzarone shares décor elements with its big sister in St. Joseph, Missouri, with exposed brick walls, handsome reclaimed wood tables and chairs, and shiny red stools around the pizza kitchen and in the bar area.

But the Kansas City location boasts a 6,000-pound Acunto Mario Forni wood-fired pizza oven, twice as large as the one in St. Joe. The oven can cook 10 pizzas in 90 seconds flat.

Opening night, you could hear the din of the dining room from the parking lot, as Borger’s restaurant filled with hungry well-wishers and pizza lovers. Inside, young families gathered around massive communal tables to catch up over Borger’s traditional Neapolitan-style pizza and a glass of beer, wine or a bottle of Coca-Cola.

We ordered the classic Margherita pizza, which Il Lazzarone has been famously certified by the Italian authorities to make, and, at $12, found it to be just as satisfying as the first time we tried it. The crust was chewy with charred bits giving it that wood-fired flavor. A thin layer of sweet San Marzano tomatoes covered the pie, which was then topped with slices of fresh mozzarella cheese and fresh shredded basil.

While the patio furniture has yet to arrive, that didn’t stop some guests from simply picking up their tables and moving them outside to soak up the last few rays of what proved to be one of the prettiest days of the year to date. The patio, which could easily seat 50 or more people once properly set, will be the place to see and been seen this summer in the City Market.

Oh, and did we mention the bar? The layout of the restaurant is a bit unusual, and the bar is located all the way in the back of the space. Once there, you’ll see bar manager Dominic Petrucci, hard at work behind a beautifully appointed bar with shiny red stools all in a row.

Taking your pie to-go? Pop in the back door, directly into the bar area. There you can place your order with the bar staff, plus a glass of wine, beer or a cocktail as you wait for your pizza. In and out, plus a cocktail. Genius.

Chef Joe West quietly announced on his Facebook page that he would be launching his new pop-up restaurant called Kusshi this Spring in Kansas City. His first dinner was held in early May at The Rieger Grill & Exchange and by all accounts, Chef Joe wowed the foodies that flocked to sample his multi-coursed dinner.

West is a talented and familiar face on the Kansas City food scene. He started his career at the age of 16 in kitchen of 40 Sardines with Chef Michael Smith and Chef Debbie Gold as his teachers. West left Kansas City after a few years spent some time in Las Vegas, starting as a sous chef of Stratta at Wynn Las Vegas, then moving to the chef de partie position of Michelin 2 star, Alex of Wynn Las Vegas.

Moving back home to Kansas City, he accepted a prominent position as chef de cuisine at Bluestem restaurant with husband and wife owners Chef Colby Garrelts and Chef Megan Garrelts. West was glad to be home, working for one of the best restaurants in town, in a city that he loved.

“It was working for Colby at Bluestem, that I began to learn the importance of restraint and honoring simplicity in my cooking. I was the chef who was always trying to show you, as the guest, everything I was capable of on every plate,” said West.

West elaborates, “Colby taught me while I was working for him to slow down and see the beauty in each individual ingredient in a dish, and it was that revelation that has informed my cooking since and inspired my pop-up, Kusshi.”

After several years at bluestem, honing his craft under Garrelts watchful eye, he decided the time was right. With a plan in place, West gave notice at bluestem to pursue his dream of opening up his first restaurant in Kansas City he planned to call “Kusshi.” After several months of searching for financial backers and the right space for the concept, West was frustrated and decided to shelve the dream until he could figure out a way to finance it and still make a living for himself.

Looking for a fresh start and a chance to run his own kitchen, West then moved to Cincinnati, OH to accept a position as Executive Chef and Director of Food & Beverage of The Cincinnatian Hotel. While he was in Cincinnati, West put his head down and went to work, but all the while he was trying to figure out how to get back to Kansas City and get Kusshi financed and back on the front burner.

It was in Cincinnati, West met another young chef named Ryan Santos, and the two chefs did two dinners together as part of Santos successful Cincinnati pop-up restaurant called Please. Seeing how Please was allowing Santos to do his own food, West watched Santos, after 4 years in the pop-up restaurant business, use a combination of private investors and Kickstarter to crowdfund his new brick and mortar restaurant that he plans to open this Fall in Cincinnati.

If all goes well for West with Kusshi, he hopes to follow in the footsteps of Santos and use these pop-up’s as a stepping stone to opening his own brick and mortar in Kansas City.

With that ultimate goal in mind, West is furiously planning multiple first 7-course menus which he plans to roll out every 2-3 weeks with new dinners.

“I’m planning to do dinners about every 2 weeks once I get rolling,” said West who knows the enormity task that lies ahead of him.

People can expect a 7-course fixed menu, and he plans to charge $100 per person, but he explains he really has no rules or regulations on what his dinners might look like going forward. He might play with the format or different cuisines at whim.

“I named my pop-up Kusshi, which means “precious” in Japanese, because no matter what I am cooking, I want to make meals that honor each ingredient, treating them like they are precious,” said West.

The next Kusshi dinner will be on May 31st at the Prairie Birthday Farm. To learn more, or purchase your seats now go to: www.kusshikc.com.

March 23, 2015

On Valentine’s Day, twelve couples made their way 20 minutes northwest of downtown Kansas City, through the romantic rolling hills and fertile soil of the Missouri River Valley to the brand-new tasting room and production facility for Terra Vox, a new Missouri winery from Vox Vineyards.

The invitation came from winemaker Jerry Eisterhold, who sold tickets to a special wine-and-cheese tasting event that served as the official christening for the wines of Terra Vox, which means “Voice of the Land” in Latin.

It also served as a bit of a focus group for Eisterhold, one that allowed 24 people the opportunity to sample his wines, made from the more than 40 different American Heritage Grapes varietals that Eisterhold is currently growing.

“Our winemaking consultant from University of California, Davis, Clark Smith, said we had more grapes in the ground than Gallo,” Eisterhold told his guests with a chuckle. His plan over time is to thin the vines down to the dozen or so that thrive in his soil and produce the best wines for Terra Vox.

Eisterhold’s decision to grow American Heritage varietals was inspired by Thomas Volney Munson, the viticulturist credited with saving Europe’s traditional grape varieties from the late-1800s Phylloxera epidemic by grafting European varietals onto Missouri root stock, which was immune to the pest.

The way Eisterhold sees it, Munson’s work is the philosophical foundation of Vox Vineyards. All the middle-American grapes that Munson discovered in Missouri are the same ones that Eisterhold is growing to make Terra Vox wines.

Although his new tasting room has bottles for sampling and purchase, Eisterhold admits his wines are still a work in progress. He knows he is just at the beginning of his journey.

“At Vox Vineyards, we are just embarking on our journey to discover the individual characteristics of our unusual American Heritage Grapes,” he says. “With each harvest, we learn new information about grape-growing and winemaking.”

Also at the tasting was Sarah Hoffmann, owner/cheesemaker for Green Dirt Farm, who greeted guests warmly. Hoffmann had paired her sheep’s milk cheeses with the ten wines on offer so that one red and one white wine was offered with each of the five cheese courses.

It was during the tasting of Eisterhold’s favorite white wine, Hidalgo, and his peppery 2012 Norton, a red, that guests got a glimpse of where Eisterhold is in his wine-making journey. He admitted to the group of family and friends, “I left the Norton on the vines longer than anyone who makes a living at this would have.”

He is honest about the undertaking’s current limitations. He writes on his website, “This is more a missionary effort than a commercial one – we do not have a tasting room ‘staff’ per se, but would be happy to show you around and give you a taste, scheduled in between winery and grape growing work.”

The Terra Vox tasting room at Vox Vineyard is open by appointment only. To visit the vineyard, call (816) 425-3219 or email info@voxvineyards.com. Tours will be offered to groups of 4-10 on the weekends, and are $10 per person, which includes a small tasting of three Vox wines.

They are also hosting two chef dinners out at their new tasting room in April. One is April 4th with Chef Ted Habiger from Room 39, and April 11th with Chef Michael Foust, The Farmhouse. Tickets can be purchased for these dinners through Brown Paper Tickets.

February 06, 2015

The dream team is coming together at Cleaver & Cork. Chef Alex Pope’s new restaurant is preparing to open its doors at the end of the month in the Power & Light District – with bartender Andrew Olsen helming the drinks program.

Olsen has been working behind the bar at The Rieger Hotel Grill & Exchange, one of the city's most prestigious cocktail bars. It's owned by local mixologist and J. Rieger & Co. whiskey-maker Ryan Maybee, who also owns Manifesto, the speakeasy downstairs.

While Olsen is a familiar face to many Kansas City cocktail lovers, this will be Olsen's first time running the bar program. He says he's prepared for the task.

“Operationally, I have learned so much about running a smooth and prepared bar program from my time at the Rieger,” says Olsen.

Running a successful bar entails the preparation of a Boy Scout, says Olsen: “Pre-measuring and batching cocktails so there is consistency in every drink. Delivering them with speed and accuracy is the key.”

He knows the guests he'll serve at Cleaver & Cork are just as likely to order a Bud Light as a Horsefeather, the craft cocktail he designed using Kansas City whiskey, ginger beer and angostura bitters, which will be on tap at the bar. He is fine with that.

“I know I am going to have guests that just want a cold beer on a hot day on our patio, and I know I am going to have guests that will come in wanting to try our signature craft cocktail, and I am okay with all of that,” Olsen says. “I just want people to come in and enjoy themselves.

“If I can introduce that beer drinker to a new cocktail that he or she enjoys, then I will have done my job.”

He is working on a drink right now for the Cleaver & Cork menu using Tequila Ocho Reposado, a top-drawer tequila aged for eight weeks and eight days. Olsen says, “It is a brand that many of us are playing with right now in Kansas City.”

The cocktail menu he is developing for Cleaver & Cork is definitely whiskey-focused at the moment, but he acknowledges that he will also have some delicious fruit-forward “pounders” for patio drinking.

“The weather is going to be nice soon, and we’ll be open and ready to serve them as Cleaver & Cork is going to have some of the best seats in the house,” says Olsen.

If you love American fashion, history and food, then you’ll want to check out Kansas City’s Johnson County Community College (JCCC) special 5-course pre-Valentine’s Day dinner. It may be just the thing to get your heart pounding.

On Friday, February 13th from 6-10 pm, faculty from JCCC’s Fashion Merchandising & Design Program and the Hospitality and Culinary Academy are partnering to create the first dinner of its kind at the college that will take guests through the fashion and food trends of the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.

JCCC Fashion Merchandising & Design Instructor, Britt Benjamin, will be raiding the on-campus designer closet to put on display the most important clothes trends of each decade, while JCCC Culinary Instructor, Chef Felix Sturmer will create his own culinary twist on the restaurant dishes that were the most popular in each decade during this 5-course dinner with wine pairings.

“Guests will enjoy an exciting menu that will mirror what was happening in America, covering fashion and food trends from the fifties through the eighties,” said Sturmer.

The menu will feature wine pairings with each course and will start with Lobster Thermidor, representing the French influences of the 1950’s. That will be followed by a second course representing the artistic “Mod” period brought on by the British invasion of the 1960’s. The third course, a seasonal salad, will represent the influences in the 1970’s and of Chef Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkley, and the rise of California cuisine. The decadent power lunches of the 1980’s will feature a decadent duck dish followed by Charlotte a la Russe for dessert.

Talking you through each decade in detail will be JCCC English Instructor, accomplished author and food historian, Andrea Broomfield, who will tie together the fashion and restaurant meals that were on everyone’s hips and lips during each of the four decades.

“In addition, guests who attend this dinner will also receive a complimentary ticket for JCCC Student Designer Fashion Show called “Eclectic Statements,” to be held on Friday, March 6th at 7:00 pm in the Carlsen Center,” adds Benjamin. Tickets for the fashion show will be given out to each guest at the dinner.

Tom Hughes, owner of Butcher Block Concepts in Overland Park, has announced plans to open Bonchon, a Korean fast-casual restaurant concept, in Lee’s Summit, Missouri this March or April.

It will be the first Kansas City-area location for the concept, says Julie Chung, assistant marketing manager for Bonchon Franchise LLC, although there are outlets on the East Coast, as well as the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore.

“Bon Chon” is the Korean phrase for “original village,” or “home town.” The restaurant chain was founded in 2002 in Busan, South Korea. The first U.S. location opened in 2006 in New Jersey and the chain has grown to more than 23 locations.

Bonchon is most known for Korean-style fried chicken wings, drumsticks or strips. They develop their signature crispiness from a special double-frying method that makes the chicken extra crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. Your choice of one or two Korean sauces gets hand-brushed onto the crispy chicken giving it an extra punch of flavor. Choose from soy garlic or spicy hot, or both.

The managing partner for Butcher Block Concepts, Hughes has a long restaurant background. He worked for many years for Kansas City’s own Jack Stack Barbecue and is looking forward to getting the word out about the new concept he’s bringing to the area.

Bonchon has won good press as it begins its expansion across the U.S. Kate Krader, restaurant editor for Food & Wine magazine, named Bonchon’s chicken wings as among in the U.S. in 2014.

She wrote, “This cult Korean wings spot features exquisitely crispy fried chicken that comes with a choice of glazes: soy garlic sauce, or spicy hot. This is one of the few places where both choices are equally delicious; so go for half and half.”

This is the time of year our bodies crave noodles in hot broth. On cold nights, we dream of large bowls filled with noodles, vegetables and protein all swimming in a steamy, savory broth. Nothing fills that craving quite like a giant bowl of Vietnamese Pho, Bun or Japanese Ramen. It is one of the most delicious ways to survive Kansas City’s long, cold winter months. Nothing clears the sinuses, warms the bones and cures a hangover faster than this catch-all soup. It will cure what ails you.

Here are four noodle bowls to help get, and keep you, right as rain this winter:

Owner, Spike Nguyen, opened his original location on Independence Avenue as Pho Hoa, but once he decided to open his second location on Broadway in the Spring of last year, he renamed both locations to iPho Tower. I stumbled in here on New Years Day looking for something to take the edge off my headache earned the night before and his Spicy Bun Bo Hue did the trick for $8.95. Made with pork broth with slices of beef brisket and beef meatballs over vermicelli rice noodles, the bun bo has a fantastic depth and spice to it, with aromas of anise or Five Spice in the broth. My version did not have the traditional pigs blood in it, but, trust me, it was not missed.

Combo Charbroiled Lemongrass Pork Vermicelli from Nguyen Pho+Grill in the River Market:

Kim and Jack Nguyen, a married couple, decided to jump on the chance to open their new Nguyen Pho+Grill restaurant in the midst of road construction because they loved the bustling corner location which is located right on the new streetcar line. They reason it is also close to many Vietnamese families who live or work around the River Market area. He works the front of the house and she is in the kitchen cooking like she does at home. Open only a few months, the couple has been busy serving their family recipes featuring Pho, Vermicelli and Bahn Mi sandwiches ever since. Try their Combo Charbroiled Lemongrass Pork Vermicelli with shrimp and a crispy egg roll for $8.75, for a sweet and sour take on the traditional noodle bowl. Want yours to-go? Use their website to place and pay for your order online before you go and pick it up. It makes the process fast and easy.

Last year, chef Dom Wiruhayarn and his wife, Marisa, opened Big Bowl Pho next door to their Tasty Thai restaurant in Kansas City’s Northland to rave reviews. Make this your spot to grab a bite coming from or going to the Kansas City Airport.

Are you back in town after a long trip? Stop in for their pho, and you’ll be ready for whatever lies ahead. Get the Deluxe Pho, for $9.95, with rice noodles floating in a umami-rich, earthy broth filled with thin slices of beef shank, brisket and tendon with fresh herbs.

Their portions are generous so you will have plenty to take home and enjoy for your next meal.

Neither Shantel Grace, nor her husband Tim, are chefs or have ever owned a restaurant before, but after developing an appreciation for Japanese ramen while living and working in Hawaii, these Kansas University graduates decided to come home and figure out how to bring a piece of their islands experience with them. The cooks that the couple has hired to make their ramen have been trained by a Japanese ramen chef, and they make their stock by roasting bones to get the most flavor. The noodles, which are almost as important as their rich broth, are chewy to the tooth, a testament to their authenticity and freshness. Go for broke with the Hokkaido Tonkotsu Miso Ramen for $11.50. This noodle bowl features thick wavy noodles, hearty miso pork bone broth and a slice of grilled yakibuta (roast pork), napa cabbage, fried leeks, spring onions, fresh corn, tamago (soft boiled egg) and nori (seaweed). Well worth the drive for bowls this good. Live in Lawrence? Ramen Bowls delivers. Lucky you.